Internship report at Smart educational service limited liability company

THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH INTERNSHIP REPORT COMPANY SMART EDUCATIONAL SERVICE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY Student’s name Ngo Thi Hue Class K55N4 Student code 19D170225 Supervisor Nguyen T[.]

THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH - - INTERNSHIP REPORT COMPANY: SMART EDUCATIONAL SERVICE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY Student’s name : Ngo Thi Hue Class : K55N4 Student code : 19D170225 Supervisor : Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc M.A Hanoi, 2023 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF IMAGES AND CHARTS ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv INTRODUCTION .1 CHAPTER 1: GENERAL REVIEW OF SMART EDUCATIONAL SERVICE LLC AND SMART ENGLISH CENTER Information about Smart Educational Service LLC 1.1 General overview of the company 1.2 Business field 1.3 Training program 1.4 Business result of Smart Educational Service LLC 1.5 Organizational structure Information about internship’s department CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION ABOUT INTERNSHIP PROCESS AT SMART ENGLISH CENTER OF SMART EDUCATIONAL SERVICE LLC Tasks performed during the internship The difficulties and experiences 11 2.1 The difficulties: 11 2.2 The experiences 12 CHAPTER 3: THE REALITY OF THE USE OF ENGLISH IN SMART EDUCATIONAL SERVICE LLC AND AT SMART ENGLISH CENTER 13 Reality of using English in the company and at Smart English Center 13 Some solutions to improve the use of English in the working environment at Smart English Center 14 CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTION FOR THE SUBJECT OF THE GRADUATION THESIS 15 CONCLUSION 16 REFERENCES i No List Image 1.1 LIST OF IMAGES AND CHARTS Content Logo of Smart Educational Service LLC and Smart English Center Image 1.2 Smart English Center in the afternoon Chart 1.1 Business result of Smart Educational Service LLC Diagram 1.1 The structure of Smart Educational Service LLC ii Page 5 No Abbreviations LLC TOEIC IELTS VND LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS English meaning Vietnamese meaning Limited Liability Company Công ty trách nhiệm hữu hạn Test of English for Bài kiểm tra tiếng Anh giao International Communication tiếp quốc tế International English Hệ thống Kiểm tra tiếng Anh Language Testing System Quốc tế Vietnam Dong Đơn vị tiền Việt Nam iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Throughout my internship, I received a lot of enthusiastic help and support, which guided and encouraged me to overcome all obstacles and finish my internship Firstly, I would like to thank Thuongmai University and the Faculty of English for establishing suitable conditions for me to have the chance and complete my internship Secondly, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc for providing me with valuable assistance and advice that enabled me to complete my internship These suggestions will help me enhance my English skills Thirdly, I would like to sincerely thank the employees and various departments of Smart English Center who have devoted their time and energy to impart their work experience and skills in the business as well as in my internship Last but not least, I want to thank my family and all of the wonderful extraclass students who assisted and encouraged me to get through my internship In conclusion, I would like to express my great gratitude to everyone who assisted me in completing my internship report Although I have made several efforts to complete the internship report with all my enthusiasm and energy, there are shortcomings in this report due to my limited skills and knowledge Dear teachers, experts, and people who are interested in the topic, colleagues, and friends, continue to provide comments and suggestions to make this report more complete Thank you sincerely! Hanoi, February 08, 2023 Hue Ngo Thi Hue iv INTRODUCTION In the context of the Industrial revolution 4.0, it is required for us to make a further attempt to catch up with the great progress of science and technology The fact that the appliance of technology in life makes our working and living conditions more convenient and easier That reflects the entire unceasing process of working hard and immersing ourselves in the growth of the times As for understanding this meaning, from its very first inception Smart Educational Service LLC has always aspired to serve thousands of people nationwide by building an English platform so that they can bring English much closer to people, especially Vietnamese people At the same time, no one will lag behind and people all have basic knowledge of English to a certain extent After receiving the recommendation letter and permission from the English Faculty at Thuong Mai University, I was elated to have the precious opportunity to get my 4-week-internship at Smart English Center (from Jan to Feb 3, 2023) I have finally ended my internship excellently and completed the report to submit to the faculty on time regarding what I got during my internship time at the company CHAPTER 1: GENERAL REVIEW OF SMART EDUCATIONAL SERVICE LLC AND SMART ENGLISH CENTER Information about Smart Educational Service LLC 1.1 General overview of the company Smart Educational Service LLC is a company that has business activities in the educational field This company provides English courses for both children and adults Smart English Center is an English center for children under Smart Educational Service LLC With the experience of studying and working in European countries, especially in Italy for many years, the founder, Man Thi Giang, opened her first classes in May, 2018, and then Smart English Center was officially founded on July 27th, 2018 and Smart English Center aims to be one of the best English centers for children in Bac Ninh The company provides educational services both online and offline Smart English Center is a specific brand for children, and this is where I my internship The business of online courses for adults is managed directly by the company Through development over years, now the center has more than 2000 students - Business name: Smart Educational Service Limited Liability Company - Address: 204 New Street, Cho Town, Yen Phong District, Bac Ninh Province - Tax code: 2301035916 - Legal representative: Man Thi Giang - Legal type: Limited Liability Company - Date of operation: 27/7/2018 - Phone number: 0888831191 - Logo: Image 1.1: Logo of Smart English Center Image 1.2: Smart English Center in the afternoon 1.2 Business field The company works in the field of education and the primary product is English classes for many other ages All the course documents are designed and developed by the Director and Center Manager Besides offline classes, online classes are held through Zoom with the model of teacher – students Meanwhile, children only have offline classes For adults, the center provides both online and offline classes  English for children: The main product is English programs for children The programs are designed to be suitable for many levels, including communication and grammar The age ranges from to 15 years old, and they are divided into many other levels The entrance test will classify students into suitable classes  English for adults: This course is set to help learners have the ability to communicate in English with the common questions in daily life and at the office Almost all learners are people who need English for their jobs However, because of not using it for a long time, they can not speak English fluently or have a standard of pronunciation To help learners study and have English certificates, Smart English Center established some IELTS and TOEIC courses These courses will enhance learners’ English and help them use English more naturally 1.3 Training program  Online classes: - Vocabulary: This program includes levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced and they raise the difficulty level in the order At each level, the topic of the lesson provides many different new words with illustrated images and without Vietnamese meaning to make students use both their memorization skills - Communication for children: This course's students almost have a basic understanding of English but lack reflexes with questions or not know how to answer the question in a full sentence - Grammar: This course is based on the national educational program for primary and secondary school - Communication for adults: This course is designed for people who have a job related to English and need to improve their English to pursue their career purpose Because English is used for the office, the program has added common situations for learners to study For TOEIC and IELTS classes, the subjects of the lesson are mainly related to the work at the office  Offline classes: The age of learners and level of English are the characteristics to classify offline classes The model of an offline class is teacher, teaching assistant , and about 1015 students The program for this type of class is designed with many activities 1.4 Business result of Smart Educational Service LLC Through years developing since being founded, Smart Educational Service LLC provides English courses for more than 2000 students years after officially running, although COVID-19 pandemic happened, the business result was not impacted too much Online classes were implemented unexpectedly during the pandemic and they became the core courses helping the company come through this difficult period The chart below shows the business results of the company in years Unit: billion VND 10 2018 2019 2020 Revenue Cost 2021 2022 Profit after tax Chart 1.1 Business result of Smart Educational Service LLC (The data from Center Manager) 1.5 Organizational structure Director Center Manager Human Resources Department Recruitment staff Training staff Customer Service Department Customer Service Representative Training Department Customer Service Staff Teachers Examiners Teaching Assistants Diagram 1.1 The structure of Smart Educational Service LLC The diagram below shows the structure of the company, it includes the departments in the whole company and parts in a branch As a new company in the market, Smart Educational Service LLC is trying to expand the scale of its departments and specialize in the activity of the departments Information about internship’s department Director is responsible for managing and regulating all the affairs of the departments, receiving information and handling things beyond the capabilities and responsibilities of the departments They are in charge of organizing and operating all business activities of the center, manage finance, monitor and promote work progress, monitoring the center's financial status and business results to take timely measures to improve the center's business performance, taking legal responsibility for all activities of the center before the law, authorities, other external parties: customers, suppliers, banks and so on Center Manager is responsible for making statistics on the number and information of registered students from different sources and saving them in books and management software, building marketing campaigns and central business strategies according to each stage, each timeline, regularly updating recruitment results, classifying and assigning classes in accordance with the entrance exam level of students Human Resources Department is responsible for recruiting and ensuring the necessary number of personnel for the center, organize short-term training programs for employees in order to improve professional skills and necessary skills for the job, develop a system of regulations and standards to manage the work of all personnel in the center, capture information and regulations on personnel in the center and promptly transmit such information to all employees of the center Customer Service Department has the function to build information channels for customers to easily intervene with information about the center, product features, prices, payment methods Customer Service Department is divided into main parts: Customer Service Representative and Customer Service Staff Training Department is responsible for training teachers, examiners, teaching assistants and developing the content of the main course books for different levels Examiners will the test and take note of the results for teachers Every month, the training department will organize an online meeting to train all of the teachers in the company about the method of teaching effectively and the way to cope with students' common problems through the course Teaching assistants are also trained a lot of skills to help teachers in the class CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION ABOUT INTERNSHIP PROCESS AT SMART ENGLISH CENTER OF SMART EDUCATIONAL SERVICE LLC Tasks performed during the internship My job as a teaching assistant took place relatively smoothly I received information from the center that assigned me to be a teaching assistant for children’s classes (students from 6-10 years old) and adults’ classes (only TOEIC classes) for weeks During my internship at Smart English Center, I was trained to be a Teaching assistant and also a second teacher in the class I had a chance to be approved for both online and offline teaching My tasks in the internship were arranged in the following process: Time: from 2/1/2023 to 3/2/2023 Address: 204 New Street, Cho Town, Yen Phong District, Bac Ninh Province Week 1: Time Tasks Monday - Getting to know people at the center 2/1/2023 - Learning about the culture of the company, lists of the Tuesday - Learning the job of a teaching assistant 3/1/2023 - Familiarizing with the online and offline platforms courses supporting the teaching process - Reading and watching about the activities of a teaching assistant in the class Wednesday - Taking part in an offline class to view the way to manage 4/1/2023 the class and how to connect the teacher and the students - Writing a report after participating in offline classes Thursday - Reviewing the previous lesson for the students on the basis 5/1/2023 of individual or in small groups - Taking part in another offline class to be more confident and have more experience Friday 6/1/2023 - Writing a report to assess the students after the lesson - Taking part in a TOEIC class to help learners improve their English - Writing details about the weakness and strength of each learner Week 2: Time Tasks Monday - 9/1/2023 materials and assembling install teaching aids - Helping the teacher prepare lesson plans, organizing Supporting foreign teachers in supervising and creating motivation for students - Writing a report after class Tuesday - Being a teaching assistant in an offline class 10/1/2023 - Giving comments about students to their parents after Wednesday - 11/1/2023 class Preparing documents, building a warm up game for the class - Being a teaching assistant in the offline class - Writing a report for students and giving them stickers Thursday - Logging in zoom and participating in an online class for 12/1/2023 children - Checking the pronunciation skills of the students - Writing a report in a sheet Friday - Taking part in the TOEIC class 13/1/2023 - Checking their homework and helping them understand more about it 10 Week 3: Time Tasks Monday - Taking part in the training meeting and receiving feedback from the supervisor 16/1/2023 - Being a teaching assistant in the class and motivating the children Tuesday - Writing the comments after class - Reviewing the previous lesson for the students on the basis of individual or in small groups 17/1/2023 - Being a teaching assistant in the class and motivating the children Wednesday - Preparing documents, holding a warm up game for the class 18/1/2023 - Taking part in a class as a teaching assistant and preparing a small party for the children before they are off for Tet holiday Week 4: Time Monday 30/1/2023 Tasks - Welcoming all the students in the class and wishing them a happy and successful new year, giving them lucky money on behalf of the center - Building up games for children to study better Tuesday - Preparing slides and fun games for online class 31/1/2023 - Taking part in another training class Wednesday - Reviewing the previous lesson for the students on the basis 1/2/2023 of individual or in small groups - Checking attendance and writing the comments after class Thursday - Being a teaching assistant in the class and motivating the 11 children 2/2/2023 - Checking their homework and correcting it Friday - Attending the last class as a teaching assistant at the center 3/2/2023 - Preparing a small farewell party - Writing a report after class The difficulties and experiences 2.1 The difficulties: An internship is a chance for undergraduate students to experience practically the job they will in the future and the environment in which it is done From this, students can see that not only does the work in reality conclude the knowledge at university, but it also needs more than that As a result, difficulties in the internship are unavoidable, and I also had some difficulties when doing my internship report Firstly, in terms of culture, according to some scientific reports or articles, Vietnam has great cultural differences from some countries like some Western countries such as in gestures or expressing emotions in the culture, communication culture, class time, and so on As a result, teachers or teaching assistants may misinterpret each other's messages, so when communicating with students, the messages become different versions Secondly, I faced some problems with the accent of foreign teachers when English is also not their mother tongue For example, I got trouble with listening to some South African teachers and Indian teachers I tried to get the key words and asked them to speak more clearly for me and the students to understand, but it seemed uneasy because an accent is something you cannot change in a short time Thirdly, in online classes, some students were mischievous, they easily lost concentration on the lesson and were impacted by factors around them The teacher could not control those factors, and I had to spend more time reminding students to focus on the lesson I had to give some rules in the class and some rewards also to warn and encourage them to concentrate on studying 12 2.2 The experiences Although I faced a lot of difficulties in the internship, I gained a lot of valuable experience for this position  To settle the issues of language barriers in the classroom of foreign teachers: a teaching assistant does not need to hear and understand all the words that the teacher wants to convey Note the keywords in that message play a much more important role When you want to explain and express your views to foreign teachers on behalf of the students, you only need to emphasize the keywords they want to share in a low tone so that the teacher can easily understand  To be creative: I spent much time researching how to make the class atmosphere more interesting to attract my students That made me have to be creative to complete them in many new modern forms of arousing instead of only using traditional activities  To understand more about the culture of using English countries: I should notice gestures or expressions in different cultures and then apply them to convey to the students 13 CHAPTER 3: THE REALITY OF THE USE OF ENGLISH IN SMART EDUCATIONAL SERVICE LLC AND AT SMART ENGLISH CENTER Reality of using English in the company and at Smart English Center Because Smart English Center is an English center, all of the teachers and students are required to speak English in the class Normally, 70% of the main language used in the class is English However, this can be changed in line with the ability of students and the features of the lesson For example, in grammar classes, teachers are allowed to use more Vietnamese to explain the knowledge Sometimes employees will not understand enough about all the information when there are specialized terms in the information that needs to be obviously explained Therefore, besides using English at the center, we also use Vietnamese On the one hand, the teachers and examiners often use English for work Because  the characteristic of the job is to teach and evaluate students, they can use English from good to fluent level The reason for this maybe is that the time to study English at school is not enough for them to practice speaking English That is the reason why teachers always make students speak English as much as they can in the class to create a good environment to learn English for them On the contrary, only the training department uses it at work Other staff in the company can not speak English or know some basic sentences This is a dark point in the effort of encouraging staff to often use English of the company They graduated from universities with diverse majors and they did not spend much time learning English when they were undergraduates Now they are working full-time, so it is difficult for them to have time to learn English again Moreover, Smart English Center mainly provides communication courses, therefore writing skill and reading skill are used with less frequency Teachers and examiners only use writing skills when they need to give comments after classes but that is short and basic sentences The company works in the Vietnamese market and does not have a partner in foreign country, all the numbers and documents are in Vietnamese, so staff in other departments also not have a chance to practice those skills 14 Some solutions to improve the use of English in the working environment at Smart English Center English is becoming more and more popular all over the world, so English proficiency is required in plentiful businesses at present when globalizationmodernization is promoted Moreover, people can offer many opportunities to seek well-paying jobs and broaden their horizons However, it cannot be denied that some people's English ability is still limited and it is crucial to come up with solutions to advance their English ability To increase the ability to use English for employees, the company should have a program to help them improve their English The training department plays an important role in this activity to design the content of the training program, and teachers and examiners will support them in communicating English With an available English environment, this is not difficult to implement However, arranging a suitable time is a concern because the employees still need to finish their tasks at work Moreover, in my view, a suggested solution to enhance English ability is to keep a diary in English First, you just need to write basic sentences of 5-7 sentences on a daily basis that you seek most comfortable After that, you should make sure the sentences are grammatically and lexicographically correct, and after a while, you are encouraged to write 10-12 sentences daily about a wide variety of things going on around you that interest you I suggest those solutions based on my experience at Smart English Center, and I think they will be suitable methods for the present reality in the company Although it is not easy to improve English in a short time, they can take full advantage of the English environment in which they are working to bolster their progress 15